Google Unveils iTunes Match Competitor -- For Free

Google Music offers iTunes Match service for free

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Google is offering a service that's identical to iTunes Match but costs nothing.

Nothing like a little Christmas capitalism.

Google this week launched a service designed to compete with Apple -- but for free. Google Music users will be able to store music online in a cloud for free, a service Apple charges $25 for via iTunes Match, according to the Associated Press.

The service scans a user's hard drive and gives them "online access to the songs it finds," according to reports. Songs on the service's servers can then be accessed, or songs will be uploaded to a user's "online locker," the AP reported.

Ah, the glory of the cloud.

iTunes Match offers storage space for 25,000 songs, and Google allows 20,000 songs. Amazon has its own service called Cloud Player, which costs $25 a year for 250,000 songs.

Come For the Music, Stay For the Eats

All three services are competing for shares of the American digital music market. Apple still has 64 percent of all online music sales, compared to 16 percent for Amazon and 5 percent for Google.